Although J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye deserves the affection and
accolades it has received since its publication in 1951, whether it has been
praised for the right reasons is debatable. Most critics have tended to accept
Holden's evaluation of the world as phony, when in fact his attitudes are
symptomatic of a serious psychological problem. Thus instead of treating the
novel as a commentary by an innocent young man rebelling against an
insensitive world or as a study of a youth's moral growth, I propose to read Catcher in the Rye as the chronicle of a four-year period in the life of an
adolescent whose rebelliousness is his only means of dealing with his inability
to come to terms with the death of his brother. Holden Caulfield has to
wrestle not only with the usual difficult adjustments of the adolescent years,
in sexual, familial and peer relationships; he has also to bury Allie before he
can make the transition into adulthood.

Life stopped for Holden on July 18, 1946, the day his brother died of
leukemia. Holden was then thirteen, and four years later—the time of the
narrative—he is emotionally still at the same age, although he has matured
into a gangly six-foot adolescent. "I was sixteen then," he observes
concerning his expulsion from Pencey Prep at Christmas time in 1949, "and
I'm seventeen now, and sometimes I act like I'm about thirteen."

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